Office refurbishment 'can improve productivity'

Office design news from Morgan Lovell

Published on 04-06-2010

Redesigning an office can help organisations to boost the productivity of their personnel, it has been suggested.

Communications manager at Microsoft Amsterdam Gonnie Been told the Irish Times that an office refurbishment led to staff at her organisation in Schiphol being more satisfied in their roles.

The news provider noted that cubicles, stationary computers and landlines were all removed, with employees neither having their own desk nor standard clocking-in times.

Laptops are instead used and workspace is completely communal to encourage collaboration and communication, it added.

Despite allowing staff members to come in whenever they preferred, productivity still improved, Ms Been noted.

"It quickly becomes an embarrassing thing within a peer group to betray that trust," she explained, although middle management tend to have the hardest time trying to adjust.

Robert Crist, writing for Lon's Article Directory, last month cited comfortable chairs as crucial design element to a hard-working staff environment.

Posted by Adrian Norman.